1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a serial printer capable of appropriately setting modes such as character pitches, font styles and so on.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A typical conventional method of setting modes such as character pitches, font styles and the like in a serial printer involves a combination of an operating switch and LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes). The following is an arrangement of this method. Prepared are, for instance, a character pitch changeover switch and a plurality of LEDs corresponding to respective character pitches. Only one LED is invariably lit up. Every time the character pitch changeover switch is depressed, the LEDs which are sequentially lit up are changed over. The character pitch corresponding to the LED which is being lit up is set. In this method, however, the number of LEDs needed corresponds exactly to the number of items to be set. A goodly number of LEDs are used. The LEDs, the drive circuits thereof, the wire arrangement for them and output ports are costly.
To obviate such a problem, the present applicant submitted Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3982/1988. For instance, set printing modes such as character pitches and the like are given in a plurality of moving positions of a printing head of a paper presser bar facing the printing head. The printing head is moved to the position by the operating switch, thus setting the printing mode.
The following drawbacks arise to the above-mentioned method of setting the character pitches by moving the printing head. The operating switch is spaced far away from the printing head for displaying the content (mode) to be selected. This results in a large movement of the visual line of the operator, which causes difficulty in operation. The moving quantity of the printing head is also large. In this respect, the movement of the visual line increases, resulting in difficulty in operation.